[1868] Tristes voluptatum exitus, et quisquis voluptatum suarum reminisci volet, intelliget , as bitter as gall and wormwood is their last; grief of mind, madness itself.
— from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

The contrast may occur to his mind, and he may be set against me, and vote in anger because he is displeased at me on this account.
— from Apology by Plato

The advocate, frightened out of his slumbers, asks me what it can all mean; I pretend to be very indifferent, and beg to be allowed to sleep.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

Something in Anne’s tone made Marilla glance at her sharply, but Anne was apparently absorbed in arranging her violets in a bowl.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Side for a great Distance down, the mountains high and rugid on the Lard Side this open bottom is about 2 miles a Short distance below this village is a bad Stoney rapid and appears to be the last in view I observed at this lower rapid the remains of a large and antient Village which I could plainly trace by the Sinks in which they had formed their houses, as also those in which they had buried their fish—from this rapid to the lower end of the portage the river is Crouded with rocks of various Sizes between which the water passes with great velociety createing in maney places large Waves, an Island which is Situated near the Lard.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

The sense for colour is a vital endowment and an ingredient in human happiness; but no vitality is added by the intervention of further media which are not themselves living organs.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

Vast, I allow: but vile.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce

The same community of blood and valor is attested by Archbishop Baldric, (p. 99.)]
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

But this was one of those antic conceits, appearing and vanishing in a breath, from which, perhaps, the best regulated mind is not always free.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville

If they knew what was doing, in these very instants, also by candle-light, in the far North-East!
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

Wherefore such persons are guilty of both vices, irony and boasting, although in different respects, and for this reason they sin more grievously.
— from Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint

They began with the Fleet-prison, which they visited in a body; there they found sir William Rich, baronet, loaded with irons, by order of Bambridge the warden, to whom he had given some slight cause of offence.
— from The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II. by T. (Tobias) Smollett

I have seen Liverpool streets with scarcely a coach or vehicle in them, save such as trade required, and the most enlightened of its inhabitants, at that time, could not boast of much intelligence, while those who page 252 p. 252 constituted its lower orders were plunged in the deepest vice, ignorance, and brutality.
— from Recollections of Old Liverpool by James Stonehouse

By consulting Darwin's map of coral reefs and active volcanoes, 478 the reader will see that we might almost with equal propriety include the Mariana and Bonin volcanoes in a band with New Guinea.
— from Principles of Geology or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir

Nay, he may even have experienced Tom Smart’s strange hallucination in regard to the ancient armchair, apparently assuming in the uncertain light of the chamber fire the outlines of a strangely-formed specimen of humanity, although probably he did not go so far as to enter into conversation with this remarkable bedroom companion, as did the Bagman, whose vivid imagination, aided by the narcotic effects of his noggins of whisky, enabled him to impart a spiciness to his narrative.
— from The Dickens Country by Frederic George Kitton

“He bade me go to Sikaram where my village is and bring him a hundred men for his lashkar.
— from King--of the Khyber Rifles: A Romance of Adventure by Talbot Mundy

"But now," said he to Richardot, "as the affair had been too much divulged, as well by diverse reports and writings sown about, very inopportunely, as by the arrival of M. Van Werne, I have not found it practicable to set out upon my road, without communication with the members of the government.
— from History of the United Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce — Complete (1584-1609) by John Lothrop Motley

We et meat and collards and cornbread and rough grub, and they biled all the victuals in a big, black pot what hung on a rack in the kitchen fireplace.
— from Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume XVI, Texas Narratives, Part 4 by United States. Work Projects Administration

And, in the next place, look to your health: and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of; a blessing that money cannot buy; and therefore value it, and be thankful for it.
— from The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton